Hopper trailers, also sometimes referred to as grain trailers, are often used to carry a variety of goods, including, for example, grain, coal, gravel, ore, and the like. A hopper trailer typically includes one or more narrower openings on their undersides to facilitate unloading of the cargo loaded within. In particular, the one or more narrower openings may be closed, to retain the cargo during transport, and opened at the destination, to allow the cargo to be unloaded.
Opening and closing trailer hopper gates is often challenging due to the positioning of the gate beneath the trailer and the sometimes high torque input needed to turn the hopper's opening mechanism by hand crank. Some hopper gates require more torque input to open because of corrosion and/or the weight and type of cargo loaded in the hopper. The combination of the low gate position, and the considerable torque input sometimes needed to open hoppers creates safety issues for workers opening hoppers using a manual crank, especially under repetition. The hopper opener must be portable enough to be positioned beside the trailer and have enough torque to open the trailer hopper gate without damaging the opening mechanism or gate itself. In addition, not all hopper gates are configured in the same way, and different hopper gate opening mechanism configurations typically require different opener tool configurations.